Saturday, January 28, 2006

lost

Alright, I think I have an actual new and original theory about Lost.

So much insane stuff has happened on the island and in the flashbacks, and there has been so much symbolism and crazy science, that I can't see that there can be any possible way to tie it all up.

I mean, think about it, we have crazy psychology references, science for the insane, mythology references, literary and music references (the books/records in the hatch), christian symbolism, chinese symbolism (the dharma logo), the black/white symbolism, the NUMBERS, the fact that all the characters are tied together and weird fantastical happenings (walt's "special powers", people's visions).

Can you honestly conceive that there is any way all this could tie together and make sense? I find it hard to believe there is explanation that explains nanobots or whatever is in that cloud, random electromagnetic fields yet also explains the fact that six symbolic numbers showed up on six basketball players' sweaters and hurley's spedometer.

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" It's impossible for all those things to tie together. So what remains is the idea that they don't. Nothing in the show is supposed to make sense. The writer/producers are making it up as they go along (heck they've even pretty well said as much themselves).

The aim and idea of the show is just to keep people watching. So they're doing this by having crazy interesting and mysterious stuff happen for us to be intruiged about, including all these random references so there are things to research and talk about, then they throw in touching scenes of emotion and funny oneliners from quality characters and BAM, 18 million people are tuning in.

Haven't you ever noticed how perfectly Lost can manipulate your feelings towards a character? People hated Shannon for more than a whole series, then the episode she died, they needed us to have emotions towards her... so they made us have them. They know exactly how to control the audience and keep us watching.

In addition to this, the show is now working in a kind of "meta" or "recursive" fashion. Because as we keep watching the show without knowing any answers... the characters keep pressing that button without knowing any answers. We could theorise that this is a psychological experiment by Dharma to see how long they will do it for, but really it is more of an experiment on us, to see how long we will watch.

2 comments:

MeanMrMustard said...

Nothing in the show is supposed to make sense. The writer/producers are making it up as they go along (heck they've even pretty well said as much themselves).

So, basically, what you're saying is that Lost is just Twin Peaks all over again. Makes me glad I haven't bothered.

Israel Derdik said...

I have to agree with you here. Alias, JJ Abrams, other series, was amazing during the first 2.5 seasons. Conspiracies abounded, inventions and prophecies by the long dead Rambaldi all kept my interest. The Rambaldi stuff was so intriguing and unexplainable and the Lost island secrets and coincidences bear more than a passing resemblence to those mysteries. However, when the mystery was finally "explained", it had a half-assed feel to it that felt like it was developed the day before and was very unsatisfying. So if the past is any indication, this producer is great at constructing the mystery but may ruin the series when attempting to explain it. Feh.